A Day in Murder World
by Chaanoua
Summary: Months after the events of Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover Doctor Doom has paid Arcade, the master of Murder World, to deal with his old foes; The Fantastic Four. In this high stakes game it's winner take all. Split up with only a hour to save their team mates, Mr Fantastic and Thing must face the horrors of Murder World and possibly Arcade himself!


A sudden white light quickly pierced through the vision of Mr. Fantastic as he slowly awoke from a deep slumber, a slumber that had felt sweet if not forced. "Oh... Where am..." The middle aged man questioned in his dazed state. However, he quickly realized something much weirder than the deep sleep that left him unusually drowsy, or the white lights everywhere.

He couldn't place his feet on the floor, and the sound of carnival music rang in his ears. It almost made his hair stand as he quickly began to worry. Looking around, Richards found his other three associates, Ben, Johnny, and Sue also in a daze state. The whole lot of them suspended above the floor.

"Ben? Sue? Wake up!" Reed urged, attempting to move his arms but finding they had failed him. For some odd reason, the scientist's limbs refused to stretch or move no matter how much he tried. Groggily, the large muscular rock covered brute started to awake as well, looking around the room before gasping in surprise.

"Reed! Where the hell are we?" Thing questioned, expecting his team leader to have answers. Richards had none to give, and thus ignored the question and replied with a statement, "It seems someone moved us in our sleep. I can't move." He replied, watching as Ben tried to wiggle free as well but couldn't. The other two FF members seemed content on sleeping for now.

It was then the sudden noise of a PA system activating followed by some fizzling caught Richard and Ben's attention.

"Hello, Mister Fantastic and the Thing." A young sounding, playful voice called out. Richards quickly realized who it was behind this just by that voice, and it seemed Ben did too as both chimed with a frustrated sigh:

"Arcade."

The sound of clapping was the first reply the pair would receive, before Arcade would continue. "So it seems it's been awhile since we last met, Richards. You see, the last time was months before I had a mid-life crisis and decided to kidnap a bunch of kids and pit them in a ring against one another." The super-villain replied with a joyful tone. Arcade was currently wearing his nanite rich white tuxedo, green under-vest, and yellow tie. The red haired male sat comfortably at his control room desk, sipping what could only be his daily espresso.

The Thing quickly took an angry tone and raised his voice in response to Arcade's chuckles, "Yeah yeah, give it a rest nutso. Any guy that feels good about forcing young teenagers to kill themselves for his idea of a sick game is just a crazy bastard."

Arcade scoffed, taking another sip of his coffee, realizing that the other two Fantastic Four members were not yet awake. "Damn, sometimes I forget to turn off the sleep mode I force victims into here. It wore off on you about five minutes ago but it seems your wife and her brother are quite the heavy sleepers." Arcade replied, clapping his hands over the microphone and creating a feedback wave of ungodly ferocity. Both Johnny and Sue quickly opened their eyes, gasping, and then attempting to struggle.

"Hey, what the hell?"

"Reed? What's going on?"

"Your death, to be simple." Arcade mused, clasping his hands together. "You see, dear old Doctor Doom is at it again and wished for me to handle his old foes. AKA You of course. Now, normally, I wouldn't be going back to my pitiful roots by kidnapping the famous group I've never had a chance going fist to fist with, but thanks to my traitorous old assistant, I think I can easily handle you boys -and girls now."

"Don't be so sure about that!" Torch blazed back, already cranky from his pleasant wake up call. "Flame on!" He chanted, expecting for his body to ignite. Quite the opposite happened, and rather, Johnny quickly found himself the victim of being paralyzed from the neck down and his powers being inhibited.

"Reed, I can't create force-fields..." Sue commented quietly, as if trying to not let big brother Arcade onto the secret.

"You should know by now that suppressing your motor functions and powers is not difficult for me, Richards. You saw the Arena murder-world footage. It was all those kids VS me on the first day and I turned one into a chunky meat dinner just by lookin at him. Likewise, your teams efforts to break free are quite helpless. "

Arcade took great pleasure watching his prey struggle, suspended in the air, without the ability to use their powers.

"Time to get down to business." Arcade stated, immediately afterwords the jaws of all four team mates quickly locked, making sure they can only watch and listen. "You're in my recent manifestation of murder-world. This time however, it's different. The main goal is to rescue each other." He continued, pushing back his long, messy red hair. "The invisible woman and the Human Torch shall both be locked away in a tower in the center of the amusement park, heavily guarded by my latest android hardware. From the start of the game, you have only an hour and a half to rescue them, Richards and the Thing, or both your team mates shall die. The exit to Murder-world will open in the same time limit, but rather all of you get out or not is dependent on you. While Doom requested I leave games out of it, I find it more fun this way. Also, I must put emphasis on the fact that trying to escape or directly confront me results in one of you turning into a splatter on the wall."

_He's gotten way stronger since the last time we encountered him. Last time he was nothing but a C-list, now he's practically the world's most wanted bedsides Zemo at the moment._

Richards thought quietly in his head. While the leader of the Fantastic Four was certain they could beat Arcade's twisted game, he was worried about the treatment of Sue and Johnny, who would be used as bait to send himself and the Thing into a truckload of death traps and enemies.

"Of course if you don't want this chance at survival I can just kill you all right now." Arcade added, hinting on the sarcasm hidden within his sentence. Obviously Arcade wouldn't outright murder them, no, he wanted to see his mice play before being eaten; being the sadistic madman he was, like a mad hatter pulling the strings of marionette puppets.

"Now, game on!" With that, the four quickly dropped to the floor, regaining the ability to control their limbs. However, not soon after, both Invisible Woman and Torch were consumed by a bluish light as Arcade's systems quickly transported the two to their designation, leaving Reed and the Thing alone on the floor of the metallic white room.

"It starts now. I'd say good luck but I'd Jinx myself." Arcade commented, turning off the PA system as he switched the security console screen over to a game of Tetris.

"Alright, we've got to find them and get out of here." Mr. Fantastic stated as he brushed his hair in stress and worry. The Thing simply brushed himself off, smug in his attitude. The rocky brute was sure they could handle what ever dangers Arcade had set out for them.

"What're you so worried about stretch? We've dealt with this guy dozens of times before!"

"I'm worried because his technology practically makes him a god in this environment and he has us trapped here. Not to mention my wife and your sparring partner are in danger." The genius replied, looking around for a way out. Soon after, a hiss of a local mechanized door indicated it's unlocking as it opened. The loud, booming voice of an artificial announcer repeated "Welcome to Murder World!"

"Let's get this over..." Ben commented with a sigh as he walked past Richards, the scientist wishing that his rocky companion took their situation more seriously as he followed. Outside their entrance chamber the two quickly came into the carnival scene featuring rides, games, and ironically, a tent labeled "Arcade".

"Where the hell do we go?" Ben asked in confusion while Reed's attention was elsewhere.

"No time to worry about that for now, we have company." He replied, watching as multiple clowns with various weapons started to race over. Judging by their movements and outer metallic appearance, Mr. Fantastic deduced that they were likely robots and not real people, and no restraint was needed.

"Damn it!" Arcade snapped as he lost the game of Tetris, smashing his keyboard which resulted in the security camera feed of the two dealing with his robotic clowns came on screen. The long haired man grinned, losing his interest in the video game he was playing before to this sick game of his own making. Watching the players fend for their lives already in his Murder world.

"Heh, at least _this _is a game I can win at..." Arcade commented, clasping his hands as his face contorted to a wide, twisted smile.


End file.
